Vidjagame Apocalypse 190 – What’re Ya Buyin’?

It’s Black Friday here in the US, which means that at least some of you are probably already enduring a retail mosh pit to get a few bucks off a new TV. With that heady whiff of capitalism in the air, we shift our focus this week to some of the most noteworthy merchants in video games, some of whom risk life and limb to sell you stuff in combat zones. We then shift gears to talk about Pokémon Sun and Moon, Monster Hunter as a “cinematic universe,” and which games you think would make perfect real-life escape rooms.

Question of the Week

Assuming you live somewhere that celebrates Thanksgiving, what are you playing over the long weekend?

After recently playing through Tomb Raider (2013) I’ve decided to play Deus ex human revolution (2011). If I get through that this weekend, I might play some Dishonored (2012) to finish my early 2010 decade bingo card.

I have the patience to wait until these games come down to $5 on steam to play them, so now I’m catching up!

You guys seriously forgot Stan from Monkey Island? You know, the guy you trick into sitting in a coffin so you can lock him in there? That you scam life insurance money out of by faking your own death? That has that weird static pattern coat that stays in the same place even as he moves? I thought he was pretty much a shoo-in.

I’m playing the “I will get to these games eventually, yeah I will play a bunch of them and then I will be complete inside” game. I am losing very badly, the games keep building up and I can’t seem to finish any of them.

Does one play Mario for the story? No. (well maybe Paper Mario)
Pokemons story doesnt matter, its just fun to travel around the new areas and build a team that you can use in online multiplayer.
Thats the real game, playing against other players.
Now I will say that this game Sun/Moon had an almost unbearable start to me, a long time pokemon player, with nonstop text about what to do and cutscenes and it seems more cornily kid appealing than any other before so youre right on that.
Also if youd like to trade or battle by exchanging friend codes let me know.

QOTW: I picked up Song of the Deep (among other things) during the XBL early Black Friday sale. It’s like a perfect blend of Miyazaki and metroidvania and I love it. Plus it’s family friendly, so I don’t have to stop playing it when my kids are around.

QOTW: Possibly the most unexpected answer possible; Final Fantasy XI Online. Really long story short, my girlfriend has a lot of trouble sticking to MMOs for long periods of time, with one notable exception of FFXI, and every time she bounces off another MMO, she goes through whatever arcane and impenetrable process is required to reactivate our FFXI accounts and we go back to whatever we were doing two years ago the last time it happened. So I spent the long weekend duoing our White Mage and Ninja to level 99, and helping some friends new to the game who decided to follow us from WoW.

Qotw: since I recently bought a Retro Usb AVS Nes/famicom, I decided to spend the long weekend catching on some good ol’ fashioned Nintendo. In the spirit of Mickey Mouse’s recent birthday, I ended up playing a lot of Disney games, including, Mickey Mouse: Adventures in Wonderland, Disney’s Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. Not very exciting, but a lot of modern games haven’t been appealing to me lately.

The only thing I play lately is Hyrule Warriors. I really enjoy coming home after a long work day and pressing one button. A lot. I mean this unironically because I’ve been playing these Musou games for years and they are my comfort food.

So my plans were to play some of my back logs on my Xbox One. But what really happened was I brought Dark Souls 3 Black Friday, didn’t touch it, and played the app Akinator with the in-laws all weekend. Seriously, if you haven’t tired Akinator, do it now! It’ll blow your mind!

Black Friday really isn’t that bad. I went out at 5 and was back by 8 after hitting up walmart, target, and best buy. Some of my biggest gets was an Air Fryer (no more oil baby!), Finding Dory bluray,digital,dvd for 10 bucks, Zootopia dvd,digital,bluray for 8, and a few other movies and games (pokken tournament and pokemon super mystery dungeon). Also bought a kickass new blue xbox one controller.

Lines and crowds weren’t that bad, didn’t see anything ridiculous, and people were pretty nice actually. And I live in Florida and did this. The horribleness of black friday I believe has been subject to lots of hyperbole over the years.